I have mixed feelings about the Validator framework. After you put together a few utility methods to perform validation (validateRequiredString(), validateDate(), etc.) it is almost easier to just put the code in your validate() method. Another place where implementing validate methods is where you have forms that derive from a base class or forms that share chunks of data. With the Validator framework you pretty much have to repeat the same validation rules for each of these forms, where you can use shared code in
Java.
The general rule of thumb on my projects have been to use the Validator framework for standard validation and put validation not covered by one of the existing rules in the validate method. In the latter case the code calls super.validate() so that the xml validation rules are also processed.
- Brent